Publish and be damned

12:01AM GMT 08 Nov 2005

At the head of our imperfect system of newspaper self-regulation sits Sir Christopher Meyer, the £155,000-a-year, part-time chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. In that role - to which he has just been confirmed for another three-year term - Sir Christopher talks confidentially to important people, including the Royal Family.

This week, two newspapers are serialising his account of his time as ambassador in Washington during the run-up to the Iraq war. Numerous confidences are betrayed on both sides of the Atlantic, and many Blair and Bush administration officials will have reason to feel let down.

Sir Christopher might take a robust view on this and argue that politicians and civil servants are fair game. But it is impossible to see how anyone could confidently confide in Sir Christopher in his new role, fearing his next volume of memoirs is under way.